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I think while it's impressive to think that the moon landings achieved an incredibly bold and complicated task, it just shows what's possible if you siphon off

I think while it's impressive to think that the moon landings achieved an incredibly bold and complicated task, it just shows what's possible if you siphon off a big chunk of GDP into big projects and an organization capable of execution. A lot of that wealth since has been distributed around the globe, or poured into industry, medicare or social security. With that global wealth distribution, incredible medical advances have been made, and we have blown past the UN millennium goals. It's all a matter of priorities. Gill Scott Haron had this funny critique of Apollo program. https://youtu.be/goh2x_G0ct4 https://youtu.be/goh2x_G0ct4 With that said, not all priorities are chosen well in my opinion. The vast economic capacity required for a program like a moon landing have since been sequestered by shareholders benefiting from the returns of selling consumer data, building guided missiles, and seeking rents on privatized access to healthcare.

asdff 3y ago
Think even bigger than the moon landing. During WWII, the US economy was centrally planned. Civilian production lines were retooled; what once was a ford plant became a 24 hour production site of B24 bombers. Instruments of war were rapidly iterated upon and developed. We accomplished the Manhattan project in three years with massive investment and access to resources and technical staff. Imagine if that organized planning carried forward into the golden age that followed when half the world was still in smoking ruin. Instead we see all that intellectual and production capacity squandered off into the free market system, where we now have the reality we see today, basically the 1970s with internet as far as actual standards of living go when you scrape off the layer of consumerist tech on top, instead of perhaps more of the expectations we set upon ourselves in the mid century. Things like access to limitless clean energy through atomic power. Supersonic transport. The ability to actually build out new and modern infrastructure, at scale, on time, without decades of litigation and political footballing. But sure, the new iphone that can't sit flat on a table really is nice too.
- singularity2001 3y ago
  Imagine if that organized planning carried forward imagine communism in the US?
  - scaredginger 3y ago
    imagine the Soviet Union?
- dotnet00 3y ago
  Central planning only worked because it was war time and everyone was willing to put aside their life and deal with a lower standard of living for a short time to help Japan and Germany find out after fucking around. If you only focus on the positives of how ridiculous American war production became it seems great, but return to reality and it becomes clear that it wouldn't have been sustainable in the long term considering how people were having to compromise with rationing of basic goods like fuel, sugar, meat, metal, paper etc.

asdff 3y ago

Think even bigger than the moon landing. During WWII, the US economy was centrally planned. Civilian production lines were retooled; what once was a ford plant became a 24 hour production site of B24 bombers. Instruments of war were rapidly iterated upon and developed. We accomplished the Manhattan project in three years with massive investment and access to resources and technical staff. Imagine if that organized planning carried forward into the golden age that followed when half the world was still in smoking ruin. Instead we see all that intellectual and production capacity squandered off into the free market system, where we now have the reality we see today, basically the 1970s with internet as far as actual standards of living go when you scrape off the layer of consumerist tech on top, instead of perhaps more of the expectations we set upon ourselves in the mid century. Things like access to limitless clean energy through atomic power. Supersonic transport. The ability to actually build out new and modern infrastructure, at scale, on time, without decades of litigation and political footballing. But sure, the new iphone that can't sit flat on a table really is nice too.

singularity2001 3y ago
Imagine if that organized planning carried forward imagine communism in the US?
- scaredginger 3y ago
  imagine the Soviet Union?
dotnet00 3y ago
Central planning only worked because it was war time and everyone was willing to put aside their life and deal with a lower standard of living for a short time to help Japan and Germany find out after fucking around. If you only focus on the positives of how ridiculous American war production became it seems great, but return to reality and it becomes clear that it wouldn't have been sustainable in the long term considering how people were having to compromise with rationing of basic goods like fuel, sugar, meat, metal, paper etc.